It seems that despite widespread concerns that programmatic advertising is open to fraud, when push comes to shove brand owners are still ploughing in their marketing spend, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast.
Just last week, a study by digital agency QueryClick claimed that a combination of client naivety and agencies’ continued use of “smoke and mirrors” is increasing fears that the discipline is not to be trusted. It echoed data guru Edwina Dunn’s warning to brands to not believe the programmatic hype.
However, eMarketer says the UK remains a market leader; by the end of 2017, brands are expected to have spent an estimated £3.39bn on programmatic trading, up 23.5% from the prior year. This represents 79% of all UK digital display ad spend, and that proportion will reach 84.5% by 2019, eMarketer estimates.
Mobile continues to be a major growth driver in the UK, accounting for more than three-quarters (78.0%) of total programmatic digital display ad spending in 2017; that figure will reach 86.5% come 2019.
The numbers for desktop, meanwhile, are declining—both proportionally and in real terms. Just 22% of programmatic ad spending, or £743.8m, will go to desktop this year, and those numbers will fall to 13.5% and £609.5m in 2019.
eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher reckons the programmatic ecosystem is growing because it is maturing. “This is leading to better practices, better behaviour and better transparency,” he said. “Making everybody in the chain accountable is the next step in cleaning up programmatic’s image further.
“There will be more initiatives to come, and as they come online, greater levels of trust will be placed in trading digital display inventory via programmatic pipes.”
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